A simple tweet won’t be enough to appease the outrage of Camelotin short, of the entire Kennedy family, towards the incorrigible Robert Jr. JFK’s grandson – third son of the equally famous Bob, assassinated in 1968 – once an esteemed environmental lawyer, then transformed into a fanatical propagator of anti-vax theories and now running for the White House as an independent, after abandoning aspirations of challenging Joe Biden in the Democratic primaries by proclaiming that the vote was rigged.
This time, what infuriated brothers and cousins was the 7 million dollar election advert aired during the Super Bowl: that is, during the most watched sporting event in America, followed this year by 123 million viewers . Thirty seconds of vintage photocopy images from the 1960 campaign, the one with which “Uncle John” defeated the Republican Richard Nixon. Alone, with Robert Jr’s big face instead of JFK’s and the name Kennedy repeated together with the phrase “a young candidate”. An obvious nostalgic reference to the immortal cult of the uncle murdered in Dallas in 1964, of course, but also a very clever entry straight into the debate of the moment, on the advanced age of the two main presidential candidates, the 81-year-old Joe Biden and the 77-year-old Donald Trump: with all due respect to the fact that the “young” Kennedy is now in his 70s.
“My cousin’s commercial uses the fame of my uncles and the face of my mother who would also be shocked by his lethal positions on healthcare, since respect for science, vaccines, equal access to care were part of his DNA,” Bobby Shriver wrote furiously on son of John and Bob’s sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver. A message also relaunched by other family members. On the other hand, his close relatives – his sister Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and his brother Joseph Kennedy II in the lead – had already distanced themselves in the past from his theories on vaccines which were so extremist that they ended up, during the pandemic, at the top of the tragic list of ” 12 influencers responsible for 65 percent of English-language misinformation shared on social media”, as a dossier published in 2021 by the Center for Countering Digital Hate put it in black and white. Robert Jr. had also been attacked, in July, by his thirty-year-old nephew Jack Schlossberg, (the son of Caroline, Jfk and Jackie’s eldest daughter): “It embarrasses the family. Speculate on Camelot for personal interests. I listened to it. I know him. I don’t understand why anyone thinks he should be president.”
They were therefore of little use Robert’s apologies, arrived yesterday via It was made and aired by the American Values 2024 Pac without involvement or approval from me or my staff because the Federal Election Commission prohibits commingling. God bless you all.” In short, all the responsibility would lie with the “Super Pac” that supports him, American Values, precisely: one of those “political action committees”, which in the complex American political panorama raise funds to be used to independently support the individual nominations.
Robert Jr.’s response, however, caused even more irritation: first of all because the video is still highlighted at the top of his X profile. Then, because the Democratic National Committee – the organization that supervises the donkey party’s platform and campaign – identified the commercial as a violation of electoral rules. Kennedy Jr, in fact, is not yet an “official” candidate: not having a political party behind him, to have his name on the ballots he must qualify in every state and needs to collect at least 100 thousand valid signatures. The Pacs can indeed pay for adverts to promote one of their candidates; but the law prohibits him from coordinating with it, promoting its electoral campaign. And the commercial could instead represent an illegal nudge in this sense.
Right, his candidacy worries the Democrats: since he has no hope of winning, it is feared that he will run above all to steal votes from Biden, favoring his opponent. In fact, in the complex American electoral system, where every single state makes its own story, even a disruptive candidate like Robert Kennedy Jr can, by taking a handful of votes away from the Democrats, tip the scales in favor of Trump. The most famous precedent is that of the elections in Florida in 2000, where the Green Ralph Nader collected 1.6% of the votes, allowing George Bush Jr to wrest the State – and with it the White House – from Al Gore for just 537 votes.
For sure its financiers are suspect at best. A substantial part of the funds raised by American Values, 15 million dollars, in fact come from Timothy Mellon, former owner of the transport holding Pan Am Systems. A Republican who coincidentally also donated 10 million to the “Make America Great Again” super PAC that supports Trump. It is not clear whether the FEC will investigate: the agency has already made it known that it could take months to address the issue. In short, it would come to a head after the Saarno elections have already concluded.